SDA fire safety: A lithium battery and emergency plan checklist

The NDIS Commission's fire safety provider alert says people with disability are at higher risk from home fires and other emergencies than the general population, and notes that they represent about 62% of people who die in preventable residential fires. It also says fire safety and emergency planning are a critical part of safeguarding people from fire.

For SDA providers, that risk sits across more than one file. The dwelling has fire alarms, exits, access systems, lifts, assistive technology interfaces and evacuation procedures. The participant has communication preferences, mobility needs, support networks and emergency contacts. The support partner may control daily staffing and emergency response. The owner may need maintenance and compliance updates, but not sensitive participant detail.

A good SDA fire safety workflow connects those records without blurring responsibilities. It should show what risk was identified, who can act on it, what was communicated, what evidence is attached and what still needs review.

The NDIS Commission's February 2026 lithium battery alert says urgent safety warnings have been issued as fires from e-bikes, e-scooters and other rechargeable devices have increased. It warns that lithium-ion batteries can catch fire, explode or vent toxic gas if not correctly manufactured, handled, stored or disposed of.

The ACCC's lithium-ion battery guide also reports a 92% increase in reported incidents, including swelling, overheating and fires, in 2022 compared with 2020. It recommends reputable suppliers, manufacturer instructions, safe charging surfaces and proper disposal instead of household rubbish.

SDA teams should not treat this as a generic consumer reminder. In a shared SDA home, a charging device can affect exit paths, bedrooms, common areas, support-worker response, overnight staffing, housemate risk, insurance evidence and owner maintenance decisions. The risk may involve a participant-owned device, a visitor device, a worker phone, a power bank, a tool battery or mobility-related equipment.

The practical control is a dwelling-level battery register and rule set. Record known high-risk rechargeable devices, approved charging locations, charger source, signs of damage or overheating, disposal pathway, fire-service guidance followed, participant communication, support-provider handoff and any restrictions needed to keep exits and bedrooms safe.

The checklist should be simple enough for property and tenancy teams to use during routine operations, but structured enough for audit, incident review and owner reporting.

The NDIS Commission fire safety alert specifically points to the SDA Practice Standards and says SDA service agreements need to include information about dwelling safety features, including fire alarms and building evacuation procedures, and how that information will be communicated to other providers who deliver supported independent living to each participant in the dwelling.

That makes fire safety a tenancy and agreement workflow, not only a maintenance workflow. When a resident moves in, changes room, starts using new equipment, gets a new support provider or experiences a change in mobility or communication, the SDA provider should check whether the safety information is still current and understandable.

Useful states include safety features issued, evacuation procedure explained, accessible format required, SIL handoff complete, resident change review due, battery risk disclosed, alarm defect open, evacuation support unclear and owner work order raised. These states let operations see what changed before an emergency exposes the gap.

The NDIS Commission emergency management alert says personal emergency management plans should detail a participant's supports and individual risks, and should be separate from organisational plans. It highlights emergency contacts, health information, communication preferences, mobility or communication aids, medical devices, support providers and different emergency or evacuation scenarios.

For SDA, this means the building plan is not enough. A resident who uses a powered wheelchair, has limited communication, needs overnight assistance, relies on a lift, lives with housemates, has few informal supports or stores rechargeable equipment has a different emergency profile from another resident in the same dwelling.

Providers should keep the plan accessible to the people who need it, with consent and privacy controls. The property team may need to know that an evacuation path is blocked or a charging location is unsafe. The support partner may need emergency response instructions. The owner usually needs only property and compliance actions.

The NDIS Practice Standards core module says emergency and disaster management planning should consider and mitigate risks to participant health, safety and wellbeing, and ensure continuity of critical supports before, during and after an emergency or disaster. It also requires consultation, communication, testing, review and worker training.

The NDIA's bushfire and emergency support page also says it expects registered providers to have emergency plans ready to enact and to follow local state or territory advice during an emergency. For SDA providers, this should translate into local hazards and dwelling-specific scenarios: bushfire smoke, flood access, cyclone damage, storm power loss, extreme heat, alarm faults, lift outage, staffing disruption and temporary relocation.

A controlled workflow should show the scenario, affected dwellings, residents impacted, critical supports at risk, support-provider contact, owner action, emergency-service advice, claim or vacancy impact where relevant, and post-event review. Without that structure, teams are left reconstructing the response from texts and maintenance tickets.

StepFree SDA should help providers manage fire safety as connected operational evidence: dwelling safety features, lithium battery risks, emergency plans, participant-specific needs, SIL handoffs, maintenance actions, incident links, review dates and privacy-safe owner updates.

The value is a shared source of truth. When a provider can see which dwelling has an open alarm defect, which resident needs evacuation assistance, which battery risk has been escalated, which support provider has been notified and which owner action is safe to report, fire safety moves from static policy to daily SDA control.